Starting in the 2024-25 Rotary year, clubs may appoint a Programs for Young Leaders Contact for their club.
Role description
As the Programs for Young Leaders Contact for your club, you champion youth voice! Learn how to facilitate connections with your club's youth program participants within the larger family of Rotary, elevate young leaders' voices and ideas, and become an advocate for creating safe and inclusive programs.
- Completing the online Youth Protection course and raising awareness among club members about youth protection policies.
- Educating yourself with Rotary's Programs for Young Leaders: Interact, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), and Youth Exchange and their policies.
- Receiving program updates, activities, and events from Rotary International and disseminating to applicable youth participants and members.
- Serving as a main point of contact to the Interact clubs your club may sponsor by
- attending Interact club meetings.
- creating opportunities for your Interactors to attend some of your meetings and activities.
- Supporting club and district leaders to ensure that information reported to RI is timely and accurate.
- Establishing lines of communication with your district committees and officers, which may include Interact, RYLA, Youth Exchange, and the Youth Protection officer, to help connect community participants to district opportunities.
- Sharing opportunities and facilitating connections for young leader participants to continue involvement in Rotary as alumni.
Eligibility
Any member in good standing in a Rotary or Rotaract club can be appointed as a Programs for Young Leaders Contact. Before selecting a member to report as your club contact:
- Consider interest and experience. Experience working with young people is preferred but not required.
- Identify one contact person. Although many people in your club may be active youth champions, only one person can be reported as a Programs for Young Leaders Contact each Rotary year.
- Plan for the future. Your club contact can be reappointed for up to three years, or your club can appoint a new contact each year. You will be asked to update this information yearly, even if the same person is reappointed.
How is this role different than a youth program club officer or a club committee chair?
Your club may already have one or more elected or appointed roles such as Club Interact Chair, Club Youth Exchange Officer, RYLA Chair, Youth Services, or New Generations Chairs with clearly defined responsibilities. This role is to identify one person in your club to receive important information and updates from Rotary. This new role is not designed to take on new or additional operations or administration responsibility of young leader programs but to facilitate better communication between your club and Rotary. This role will not have the same level of online access as club officers.
Adapting this role to your circumstances
If your club is already involved in youth programs or has existing youth-serving roles in your club, you can report that leader as your club's Programs for Young Leaders Contact. For example, your Youth Services Chair can also be appointed as the Programs for Young Leaders Contact.
If you're not already involved but want to learn more, report an interested member as your club's Programs for Young Leaders Contact to learn more about getting started!
Why was this role created?
Members who participate in Rotary Programs for Young Leaders are highly satisfied with youth programs and their Rotary membership, but only approximately a quarter of Rotarians are having these great experiences! It can be hard for clubs who want to engage with youth programs to know how to get started. RI wants to make it easier by providing the tools and inspiration directly to clubs that want to get started in youth programs or strengthen their existing involvement.
Questions about the role? Email youngleaders@rotary.org